Marc Maron brings popular podcast to Brooklyn festival, with
assists from Hodgman and Klosterman

By
Michael Shashoua / Jester editor-in-chief

Marc Maron brought his WTF podcast to Brooklyn May 19 with a live
edition in the “Extra Mooga” portion of the “Googa Mooga” festival
in Prospect Park. Guests John Hodgman and Chuck Klosterman, perhaps
the patron saints of Brooklyn hipsterism, however much they might
protest that label, brought the most life to the event, out of five
guests Maron hosted.

“Daily Show” commentator Hodgman, picking up on a previous thread of
conversation between Klosterman and Maron, deconstructed Twitter.
It’s a mystery as to why Hodgman was seeking a ferret skeleton for a
photo shoot at L.A.’s Chateau Marmont hotel, but he recalled putting
out a call for one on Twitter, and got the same joke from hundreds
of followers – “Are you sure you don’t mean the Chateau Marmot?” To
explain, a marmot is an animal that resembles a ferret but is a
different species.

Incredulous, Hodgman said he bets each person tweeting this thought
they had come up with a great original joke, but collectively, group
instinct on Twitter somehow leads tweeters to all come up with the
same bad pun nearly simultaneously. To Hodgman, it’s a reminder of
how unspectacular Twitter and tweeting really is. He went on to also
relate past unsatisfying experiences trying to write about food as a
freelancer for Men’s Journal, but being confined to pieces about
cooking steak or barbecue – or “things a mentally ill man could make
in a halfway house.” But you’ll probably catch more of this when
Maron eventually releases a recording of this show.

Klosterman made his conversation with Maron lively by repeatedly
challenging and questioning his host, touching on hipsterism, pop
culture and, yes, Twitter. He had a paradox to share -- that what
makes a hipster is that they actually hate hipsters. Therefore,
Klosterman says, he can’t be one because he loves them, and they are
the strongest patrons of his writing (journalism and novels).
Klosterman also bucked Maron up a bit, countering his
self-deprecating assertion that he’s no longer up on pop culture,
and counseling him not to engage with Internet and Twitter “trolls,”
who send nasty comments his way.

Speaking of self-deprecating, the audience size for this live
podcast was a little less than Maron might have liked, as he
remarked at the beginning of the show. This probably owed to the
fact that it shouldn’t have been placed within the more exclusive
(and expensive-ticketed) “Extra Mooga” area of the festival,
especially if Maron wanted a better turnout as host. Overall, his
other guests, comedians Joe Mande and Mike Silvestri proved more
mellow but less dynamic than Klosterman and Hodgman, but the first
guest, Nicki Russ of the Russ & Daughters gourmet food shop engaged
in an interesting historical and foodie discussion with Maron.

The Great Googa Mooga and Extra Mooga continue on May 20. Extra
Mooga will feature
appearances by Patton Oswalt and Kurt & Kristen on its second day.